Soyuz FG

The uncontrolled, destructive re-entry of a Soyuz rocket stage that helped boost a three-man crew into orbit earlier this week was seen from the Mediterranean in the early hours of Sunday per reports and videos coming from the French Riviera and Central Italy

Russia’s Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft pulled into a docking port on the International Space Station on Friday after two-day journey from a remote launch pad in Kazakhstan to the orbital home and workplace for the three experienced space fliers spending the spring and summer months off the planet.

A veteran Russian Cosmonaut and two NASA Astronauts with prior Space Shuttle experience blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome Wednesday night on a planned 160-day space flight to the International Space Station.

Russia’s Soyuz FG rocket rolled out to its historic launch pad at Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome under waves of early morning fog on Monday in preparation for liftoff with an all-veteran crew on Wednesday to send them off on a half-year Expedition to the International Space Station.

The next crew headed to the International Space Station – comprising a veteran ISS Cosmonaut and a pair of Shuttle fliers – arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome last weekend to enter their final preparations for launch on a five-month flight as part of ISS Expeditions 55 and 56.

The year 2017 saw a total of 90 known orbital launch attempts from seven nations and space ports in eight different countries. 2017 had the second most orbital launch attempts of any year in the current century, short of 92 launches in 2014 and showing a slight increase from 2016 that had 85 known launch attempts.

Three crewmen from Russia, the U.S. and Japan blasted off in freezing temperatures on Sunday to set sail on a two-day rendezvous with the International Space Station to kick off a half-year mission living and working in space to conduct world-class science and outfit the orbital outpost for operations heading into the next decade.

A third-time Soyuz commander, a physician-turned-astronaut, and a former naval test pilot are on the eve of liftoff atop a Russian Soyuz rocket taking them into orbit on Sunday for a five-and-a-half-month mission aboard the International Space Station.

Carrying a crew of three, a Russian Soyuz FG rocket lit up the skies over the Baikonur Cosmodrome Tuesday night as it embarked on a nine-minute climb to orbit in pursuit of the International Space Station to send the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft on a fast-track rendezvous with the orbiting laboratory with the second half of the Expedition 53 crew.